Vlad Andriescu
The program started on January 25th, and, by March 25th, it will include eight intensive mentoring modules: sales, matchmaking with financial institutions in the region, product marketing, transition strategies to the international market and preparation for attracting investment, matchmaking with investors and investment funds.
Startups from countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, UK, Kazakhstan, and South Africa have joined the program with consolidated teams and digital products feasible for international expansion.
10 FinTech and SaaS startups from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, the UK and Armenia have already been selected, with MVPs ready to launch or in beta testing.
These are: BankSpot, Boleron, Credify, Infin8 Applications, Prime Dash, Solo Fintech, SPIN Analytics, Text ’Pay Me, Vestinda and Zanumi.
The eight intensive mentoring modules are conducted with the support of over 21 regional and global mentors - experts and investors in banking, business development, representatives of global technology providers, FinTech unicorns in Europe. Among them are: Bogdan Ciobanu - Segment Head for CE Cluster, Citi Commercial Bank, Suleiman Arabiat - Senior Investment Manager, Elevator Ventures, Sergiu Negut - Co-Founder of FintechOS, Mike Parsons - CEO Qualitance, Irina Leca - Product Marketing Manager Google, Monica Sibișteanu - Head of Content & Community Monese, Petr Baron - CEO TBI Bank, Veselina Markova - Fintech Lead, Eleven Ventures, Valeri Petrov - Partner, Eleven Ventures and Ian Scarffe - Expert at the European Commission - Horizon 2020.
Thus, NEXT FinTech becomes the most extensive and applied program of bootcamps and workshops dedicated to fintech startups, which receive compressed and efficient mentoring throughout the program, starting from the identification and understanding of the target market and accessing partnerships with regional and global banks and players in FinTech and technology. In addition, start-ups with commercial traction are exposed to program partners to attract pre-Seed and Seed investment rounds.
"FinTech startups have become actual innovation drivers and promoters. At NEXT FinTech we have all the ingredients so that startups can say, at the end of the program, that they have traveled an accelerated route, they have gained experience, and that they have become eligible for future rounds of financing. A team of elite mentors has joined us, both, regional and global. Techcelerator thus provides a full context for the development of the local startup ecosystem", says Cristian Dascălu, GapMinder BV partner & Co-founder of Techcelerator.
